31 replies to this topic

[Bombast]

RestosIII, on 27 December 2016 - 09:47 PM, said:

Excuse me? The Warhammer is downright scary.

Is it? I don't think it's bad, but I've never been scared of a Warhammer. It's just another heavy.

[C E Dwyer]

Appogee, on 28 December 2016 - 09:01 AM, said:

Now compare the disparity in high-mounted hardpoints between IS and Clans...

This is what is killing balance in F.W more than anything.

Currently it might be possible to fix balance, and make F.W usable, first they have to stop doing dumb things like putting drop zones in kill boxes.

Then they have to reduce the size of I.S mech back to where they were, making them harder to hit.

Then take a breath and see if that helps much, then if there is still an imbalance start giving back the buffs they removed early this year.

If they act positively and quick enough, the I.S population might remain high enough to keep FW viable, despite what they have done in the past.

What would kill F.W completely would be Adding the Warhamer IIC and the Rifleman IIC before some radical buffing of I.S mechs happend.

Bombast, on 28 December 2016 - 09:07 AM, said:

Is it? I don't think it's bad, but I've never been scared of a Warhammer. It's just another heavy.

I think he means it's one of the few I.S mechs that remains competitive with clan ones, of course the build you need for it to be competitive, means you can't shoot down UAV's unless your half the map away from it.

[Y E O N N E]

The change to 1.5 heatbpervround in UAC/5 did a real number on the WHM-6R.

[FLG 01]

Hit the Deck, on 28 December 2016 - 04:12 AM, said:

Tell me a hypothetical good but not-yet-existing IS 'Mech, what kind of a 'Mech would it be?

The Dragoon, of course. Fast, ECM, high hardpoints (including the possibility to mount AC/20 in the arm), and diverse variants.
In the assault department there is the Nightstar waiting which is kind of KGC 2.0, while the Spector - fast, jumpy, ECM, many energy HP - would be pretty much the answer to the ACH.

So no, the IS has not exhausted it's arsenal. The problem is that most of the good Mechs are not fan favourites. The Dragoon is basically unknown (obviously for being extinct in 3053 and for being a late addition to the canon anyway). Most people would prefer the Crusader for example which would not do much. I am not judging though since some of my favourites would not be stellar either, like the Excalibur.

[Gas Guzzler]

FLG 01, on 28 December 2016 - 10:43 AM, said:

The Dragoon, of course. Fast, ECM, high hardpoints (including the possibility to mount AC/20 in the arm), and diverse variants.
In the assault department there is the Nightstar waiting which is kind of KGC 2.0, while the Spector - fast, jumpy, ECM, many energy HP - would be pretty much the answer to the ACH.

So no, the IS has not exhausted it's arsenal. The problem is that most of the good Mechs are not fan favourites. The Dragoon is basically unknown (obviously for being extinct in 3053 and for being a late addition to the canon anyway). Most people would prefer the Crusader for example which would not do much. I am not judging though since some of my favourites would not be stellar either, like the Excalibur.

You forgot the Thunder Hawk! Gunslinger might be a good addition as well... Dual gauss, Er PPC, ECM, JJs...

[FLG 01]

Gas Guzzler, on 28 December 2016 - 10:51 AM, said:

You forgot the Thunder Hawk! Gunslinger might be a good addition as well... Dual gauss, Er PPC, ECM, JJs...

Well I know there are more; I just limited my post to those three examples.
As a fan of the DSPF I would love to get the Gunslinger, even it is a tad slow for my taste. But other than that... Gauss in the arms, high mounted energy HP in the torso, ECM, JJ - yes, it is a good one. Unfortunately, again, it is a dark horse for many.

[Bud Crue]

Rugbypig, on 27 December 2016 - 09:41 PM, said:

2016 introduced the following mechs
Inner Sphere:
Warhammer - 70 tons - January
Rifleman - 60 tons - February
Archer - 70 tons - March
No mech in April
Phoenix Hawk - 45 tons - June
Cyclops - 90 tons - August

5 mechs - 1 Medium, 3 Heavies & 1 Assault = 335 tons

Clan:
No mech in April
Kodiak - 100 tons - May
Viper - 40 tons - July
Night Gyr - 75 tons - September
Huntsman - 50 tons - October
Linebacker - 65 tons - November
Marauder IIC - 85 tons - December

6 mechs - 2 Mediums, 2 Heavies & 2 Assaults = 415 tons

Result:
Phoenix Hawk (Meh) vs Viper (Ok) or Huntsman (Decent) = Clan victory

Warhammer (Decent), Rifleman (Ok), Archer (Ok) vs Night Gyr (plain Nasty) or Linebacker (Ok) = Clan Victory

Cyclops (Decentish) vs Kodiak (Hella Nasty) or Marauder IIC (Nasty) = Clan victory


IS losing the new mech war - badly

I guess I see this differently. I don't see it as a Clan vs IS arms race, in terms of who got better mechs over the last year, but rather what do these new mechs do for the game play and what do they do to the game's balance.

From a variety of play perspective, I think it was a great crop. Sure some mechs represent fairly middling game play changes (For the average player does a Warhammer 6R really provide a significant distinction in play over a K2 for example? A 6D from a Grasshopper or Black Knight?, etc.) but some mechs were out right unique (Tempest) or substantial improvements over what already existed (Black Widow is a Phract-4X with better hard points and engine cap and that makes all the difference). Overall a lot of variety and great game play choices for the average player (yeah yeah I know the meta wh-res can't fathom why people play anything but the most objectively superior mechs, but believe it or not some folks do enjoy flying a round in a Viper or running a max engine Phoenix Hawk for the pure joy of the rush of movement).

To me that is the analysis that matters, what did these mechs do for the variety of play that we the player/customers can choose from. And from that perspective I'd say the mechs of 2016 added more variety and more interesting game play than one could have hoped for. So for that a big end of year thanks to PGI.

Alas, the dark side of this is that some of that same variety, embodied by some of those mechs, broke the game. Notably the Kodiak-3, maybe the Spirit Bear, maybe the Night Gyr. 2016's mechs may be the most varied in the game's history, but they also are the most representative of Power Creep.

So a big positive for variety of play and a big negative for power creep.
2017's mechs I think will have a hard time matching the impact that the mechs of 2016 had on the game for good or ill.

[RestosIII]

Bud Crue, on 28 December 2016 - 05:15 PM, said:

2017's mechs I think will have a hard time matching the impact that the mechs of 2016 had on the game for good or ill.

Unless the Bane and Piranha gets added. Then everything is off the table.

[Hit the Deck]

Bradigus, on 28 December 2016 - 07:08 AM, said:

There's the Bandersnatch,

Nice art you've got there!

The Bandersnatch does look interesting.

Gas Guzzler, on 28 December 2016 - 08:50 AM, said:

The Thunder Hawk could do 5 or 6 AC5s and an XL engine.

I checked sarna and I couldn't find any variant of Thunder Hawk which sports 5-6 Ballistics....

FLG 01, on 28 December 2016 - 10:43 AM, said:

The Dragoon, of course.

I admit that it's pretty interesting.

[JediPanther]

No surprise there are no new light mechs. I don't.count the hero or champion versions of already existing mechs. Just imagine how quickly mwo would die if no new med,heavies, or assaults came out for over a year. I'm going back to skyrim. Maybe next year will add more than one light mech a year.

[Bud Crue]

JediPanther, on 28 December 2016 - 05:45 PM, said:

No surprise there are no new light mechs. I don't.count the hero or champion versions of already existing mechs. Just imagine how quickly mwo would die if no new med,heavies, or assaults came out for over a year. I'm going back to skyrim. Maybe next year will add more than one light mech a year.

Locust is still fine on the IS side. A cynical person might suggest that the rescale nerf to all IS lights -save the 20 ton segment- was merely a set up to sell mechs like the Wasp, Stinger and Flea at some point. They presumably will have similar volumetric properties and be just as hard to kill as the Locust is. Plus they are some of the few old nostalgia mechs left. A double potential money maker. Good thing I am not such a cynical person.

[JediPanther]

Bud Crue, on 28 December 2016 - 05:57 PM, said:

Locust is still fine on the IS side. A cynical person might suggest that the rescale nerf to all IS lights -save the 20 ton segment- was merely a set up to sell mechs like the Wasp, Stinger and Flea at some point. They presumably will have similar volumetric properties and be just as hard to kill as the Locust is. Plus they are some of the few old nostalgia mechs left. A double potential money maker. Good thing I am not such a cynical person.

By my own stats the locusts do just as well as the jenners. A lot of mechs did improve significantly from the rescale but the vast majority of those were not light mechs. Light mechs were heavily negatively impacted by the rescale that it was a big nerf to all of them excluding the number one is light of the locust. Not some thing you'd do to try and drone up sales of a class of unreleased or unannounced mechs of that class. Not to forget that lights are the lowest populated class in the game baring limited and rare events designed around them. As for the Flea it had its concept art done years ago and still is not in the game. Shockingly the Flea concept art remains exactly where it always has been on the concept art page.

https://mwomercs.com...29-flea-concept

As for is locust vs is jenner my stats show they are pretty close:
JR7-D 479 214 249 0.86 272 300 0.91 78,041 389,001
JR7-F 118 63 52 1.21 97 61 1.59 26,053 126,752
JR7-K 67 35 30 1.17 47 41 1.15 10,853 60,961
OXIDE 368 168 193 0.87 338 252 1.34 92,567 315,220
LCT-1E 284 133 147 0.90 201 173 1.16 49,517 234,016
LCT-1M 119 44 73 0.60 32 93 0.34 11,443 60,462
LCT-1V 197 83 111 0.75 63 144 0.44 19,637 122,703
LCT-3M 121 46 75 0.61 18 97 0.19 8,909 62,350
LCT-3S 144 53 89 0.60 28 105 0.27 11,494 72,327
LCT-3V 55 24 31 0.77 24 29 0.83 8,167 40,259
PIRATES' BANE 173 80 83 0.96 89 100 0.89 27,458 156,415